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White Estate temporarily closing for eight-month remodeling project

The Ellen G. White Estate will temporarily close on August 15 and reopen in mid-April as part of a renovation project to provide an enhanced visitor center. The estate is located on the lower level of the Adventist Church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. [photo: Ansel Oliver]

Estate of Adventist Church co-founder to feature enhanced visitor center

The estate of Seventh-day Adventist Church co-founder Ellen G. White is scheduled for an eight-month remodeling project that will offer an enhanced visitor center.

Starting August 15, the Ellen G. White Estate will be unavailable for tours and research at its location on the lower level at the Adventist Church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. The estate is scheduled to reopen in mid-April.

The estate currently features a research library, many of White’s original manuscripts and art specifically created for the estate. Leaders said the redesign will offer more interactive displays and exhibits.

“We want people to have an enhanced museum experience and come away from it knowing something they didn’t already know about Ellen White,” said estate director James Nix. “We also hope it will motivate people to read more of her writings,” he said of White, who is still widely published nearly 100 years after her death in 1915.

During the closure, estate employees will work in other areas of the Church’s headquarters.

Upon re-opening, the estate will offer a tour that teaches visitors about the beginnings of the Church, exhibits and a timeline of White’s life, information about her overseas missionary experiences in Europe and Australia, and a mural will have a narration in five languages.

One exhibit will highlight her ministry as a writer. Nix said the display will include copies of White’s book “Steps to Christ” in more than 100 languages. Also, a room will be recreated to demonstrate how many Adventists in former Communist countries translated her books in secret to avoid detection by police who often listened for typewriters.

The final stop on the tour will feature a small chapel with a video that challenges visitors to be a part White’s mission of spreading the gospel.

“We’re also hoping people see themselves as part of this movement that God sent a messenger to,” Nix said. “She was a real blessing to this church.”